Computer-implemented system and method for efficiently facilitating appointments within a call center via an automatic call distributor

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented system and method for facilitating appointments within a call center is provided. A list of agents for scheduling meetings within a call center is received from a user. An availability status is determined for each agent on the list at a common time. A determination that all the agents on the list are unavailable for a meeting with the user at the common time is made. A notice is provided to the user that all the agents on the list are unavailable. The agents are tracked and at a later time, one of the agents is determined to be available. A determination is made that the user is available at the later time and the available agent is transferred to the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This U.S. Patent Application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No.9,819,798, issued Nov. 14, 2017, the priority date of which is claimedand the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference.

FIELD

The present invention relates in general to call centers and, inparticular, to a system and method for efficiently scheduling andfacilitating appointments within a call center via an automatic calldistributor.

BACKGROUND

Customer call centers, or simply, “call centers,” are often the firstpoint of contact for customers seeking direct assistance frommanufacturers and service vendors. Call centers provide customer supportand problem resolution are reachable by telephone, including datanetwork-based telephone services, such as Voice-Over-Internet (VoIP), orby a Web application that allows customers to make calls. Although WorldWide Web- and email-based customer support are becoming increasinglyavailable, call centers still offer a convenient anduniversally-accessible forum for remote customer assistance. Thetimeliness and quality of service provided by call centers is criticalto ensuring customer satisfaction. Minimizing delays is crucial, evenwhen caller volume is high.

Within a call center, agents generally receive incoming calls fromcustomers and address the customers' concerns. Supervisors manage theagents by tracking and reviewing agent performance, call efficiency, andcustomer satisfaction, among other performance metrics. The supervisorsgenerally relay the performance feedback to the agents during a meeting,such as an in-person meeting, such as in a brick and mortar call center,or via a telephone call for remotely-located agents.

To conduct the meeting, the agent must first be removed from a callqueue so that the agent no longer receives incoming customer calls.However, removal of an agent from the call queue can increase customerhold time, such as when the meeting is scheduled during a time when thecall center becomes busy and the agent is needed to answer calls or whenthe agent is needed to answer a specific type of inquiry that otheragents cannot satisfy. Therefore, removing an agent from a queue toattend a meeting with his supervisor can result in long hold times andcreate frustration of the callers, which leads to an unsatisfactorycustomer experience.

Accordingly, a system and method to efficiently schedule meetings withagents without disrupting a flow of the call center is needed.Preferably, the system and method schedule the meetings when an agent ismost available.

SUMMARY

To improve call efficiency and customer satisfaction, meetings betweenagents and their supervisors should take place at a time when the agentscan be removed from their call queue without increasing customer holdtimes. To ensure that an agent is available for meeting with hissupervisor, a supervisor provides an automatic call distributor with alist of agents with whom the supervisor wishes to schedule appointments.The automatic call distributor can identify a most available agent forimmediately transferring to the supervisor for conducting a meeting.Further, the automatic call distributor can schedule appointments withthe supervisor for the remaining agents on the list or can continue tomonitor each agent's availability in real time for automaticallyconnecting that agent with their supervisor at a time when the agent canbe easily removed from the call queue without affecting a length ofcustomer hold time.

An embodiment provides a computer-implemented system and method forfacilitating appointments within a call center. A list of agents forscheduling meetings within a call center is received from a user. Anavailability status is determined for each agent on the list at a commontime. A determination that all the agents on the list are unavailablefor a meeting with the user at the common time is made. A notice isprovided to the user that all the agents on the list are unavailable.The agents are tracked, and at a later time, one of the agents isdetermined to be available. A determination is made that the user isavailable at the later time and the available agent is transferred tothe user.

Still other embodiments will become readily apparent to those skilled inthe art from the following detailed description, wherein are describedembodiments of the invention by way of illustrating the best modecontemplated for carrying out the invention. As will be realized, theinvention is capable of other and different embodiments and its severaldetails are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, allwithout departing from the spirit and the scope of the presentinvention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to beregarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an environment forreceiving incoming calls in a call center.

FIG. 2 functional block diagram showing a call center for efficientlyfacilitating appointments within a call center via an automatic calldistributor, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing a method for efficiently facilitatingappointments within a call center via an automatic call distributor, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing, by way of example, a process fordetermining agent availability.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing, by way of example, agent criteria fordetermining availability according to FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing, by way of example, a process forscheduling meetings with agents.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing, by way of example, a process forrescheduling meetings with agents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a call center, supervisors monitor and provide feedback to agents,such as during a scheduled meeting to ensure that the call center runsefficiently and provides satisfactory customer service. However, themeetings themselves can contribute to inefficiencies in the call centerthat require callers to wait longer to receive assistance and serviceprovisioning, such as when an agent meeting is scheduled during a timewhen the call center is busy and the agent is needed to answer calls.Often, a supervisor is unaware of the call center status and thus, failsto cancel or reschedule the meeting. Meetings between an agent and asupervisor can be efficiently scheduled via an automatic calldistributor (ACD) by identifying an available agent, providing thesupervisor with an agent file, and connecting the agent with thesupervisor. Identifying available agents and initiating a meeting forthe agents can prevent meetings from being scheduled when the callcenter is busy and can also reduce the amount of time needed to conductthe meeting.

A call center services incoming customer calls. FIG. 1 is a functionalblock diagram showing an environment 10 for receiving incoming calls ina call center. The call center 11 receives incoming calls fromconventional telephone handsets 12 through Plain Old Telephone Service(POTS) 13 and from portable handsets 14 through cellular and satellitetelephone service 15. Calls can also be received from desktop 16,portable 17 or tablet 18 computers, including VoIP clients, Internetclients and Internet telephony clients, through an internetwork 19, suchas the Internet. In one embodiment, a call can be initiated through aWeb application, such as on a smart phone, tablet, or other type ofcomputing device. For instance, a banking application can includeinformation regarding a user's account, including balance, debits, anddeposits, as well as a call button, that automatically initiates a callbetween the user and a call center of the bank when pressed.

The call center 11 is associated with a database 20 in which callrecordings 21 and caller records 22 can be stored for use during anincoming call or at a later time. For instance, a caller of an incomingcall can be identified and the record associated with that caller can beobtained for providing to an agent assigned to handle the incoming call.Further, recordings of the call between the caller and the agent can bestored as a call recording 21.

The handsets 12, 14, computers 16-18, and the call center, each includecomponents conventionally found in general purpose programmablecomputing devices, such as a central processing unit, memory,input/output ports, network interfaces, and non-volatile storage,although other components are possible. Moreover, other informationsources in lieu of or in addition to the servers, and other informationconsumers, in lieu of or in addition to the handsets and computers, arepossible.

An ACD distributes the incoming calls of the call center to agents anddetermines an availability of the agents for efficiently schedulingmeetings. FIG. 2 functional block diagram showing a call center 30 forefficiently facilitating appointments within a call center via anautomatic call distributor, in accordance with one embodiment. Amultitude of telephone calls 31 are received into the call center by anACD 32 through a Private Branch Exchange (not shown) or other telephonicconnection for distribution. The ACD 32 includes a distributor 33, anavailability determiner 34, a scheduler 35, and a connector 36. Thedistributor 33 initially assigns each received incoming call to anInteractive Voice Response (IVR) 39 or to a call center agent terminalmanaged by an agent 37.

Once received, the IVR 39 can obtain data from the caller during theincoming call or provide responses to caller questions using prerecordedaudio 41 or dynamically generated audio, such as based on a storedscript 42. The prerecorded audio 41 and scripts 42 can be stored in adatabase 40 interconnected to the IVR 39. The IVR serves to obtaininformation from the caller or resolve a caller concern withoututilizing an agent. However, if necessary, the call can be transferredfrom the IVR to an agent or supervisor via the ACD.

Agents 38 are live individuals that answer and handle calls within acall center to enable information collection and trouble-shooting onbehalf of customers or callers. Each agent 37 can be associated with aparticular call queue for handling specific predetermined subjectmatter. For example, call queues can be generated for different servicedepartments or subgroups of the call center, such as customer service,new subscriptions, trouble shooting, billing and collection. If no agentis available within a particular queue to which the call should betransferred, the call is placed on a hold list for that queue. As agentsin the queue become available, the calls on the hold list can beanswered, such as in a first in, first out order, as well as other typesof order, such as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2008/0246592, to Waalkes.

The ACD assigns a call to an agent based on agent criteria factors,which can include skill level, seniority, a number of open tickets, andqueue length, such that the call will be transferred to the agent bestsuited to take the call. For example, a caller with a difficult questionmay be transferred to a senior agent who has the fewest number of opentickets. The agent criteria are further described below with referenceto FIG. 3. The ACD can also identify a particular agent that sharescommon characteristics with a caller for transferring the call, asdescribed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,837,687, to Odinak, issuedon Sep. 16, 2014, the disclosure which is hereby incorporated byreference. For instance, the characteristics can include gender, age,nationality, ethnicity, and accent. Other characteristics are possible.

Calls can also be directed to a supervisor 38. A supervisor 38 monitorsone or more agents to ensure that the agents are efficiently andsufficiently handling caller concerns, and handles escalated calls,which can be transferred from an agent to the supervisor. To ensure thatthe agents are effective, the supervisor provides feedback to the agentsby submitting a list of agents (not shown) to the ACD.

Once the call is assigned, such as to an agent, the call is recorded inan agent record 44 as an open ticket. A database 43 interconnected tothe ACD stores the agent records 44 and appointment schedules 45 for thesupervisors and agents. An availability determiner 35 identifies a mostavailable agent for automatically connecting to a supervisor to conducta meeting. Specifically, the availability determiner 34 uses the list ofopen tickets, along with other agent criteria, such as skill level,seniority, and queue length to determine whether an agent is availableto meet with the requesting supervisor. The most available agent can beimmediately connected to the supervisor or connected at a scheduledtime, such as after finishing a current call. Meanwhile, other agentsrequested by the supervisor can be scheduled to meet with the supervisorat later times. The scheduler 35 uses the availability information toschedule appointments between one of the agents and the requestingsupervisor. The appointments are then stored in the appointment schedule45 for automatically connecting the agent and supervisor at thescheduled time. Finally, the connector 36 removes the most availableagent or scheduled agent from the call queue and connects the agent withthe supervisor. The agent-supervisor connection can occur via telephoneor Web conferencing, as well as by other means.

Additionally, the ACD include one or more modules for carrying out theembodiments disclosed below. The modules can be implemented as acomputer program or procedure written as source code in a conventionalprogramming language and is presented for execution by the centralprocessing unit as object or byte code or written as interpreted sourcecode in a conventional interpreted programming language interpreted by alanguage interpreter itself executed by the central processing unit asobject, byte, or interpreted code. Alternatively, the modules could alsobe implemented in hardware, either as integrated circuitry or burnedinto read-only memory components. The various implementations of thesource code and object and byte codes can be held on a computer-readablestorage medium, such as a floppy disk, hard drive, digital video disk(DVD), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM) and similarstorage mediums. Other types of modules and module functions arepossible, as well as other physical hardware components.

Scheduling of appointments by the ACD increases call center efficiencyby keeping agents on the phones when they are most needed, as well asreduces the time needed to organize and conduct a meeting byfacilitating the meeting connection. FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing amethod 50 for efficiently facilitating appointments within a call centervia an automatic call distributor, in accordance with one embodiment. Asupervisor accesses a Web page on which he inputs a list of one or moreagents with whom he wishes to schedule a meeting during a particulartime period, such as a day or week. Other time periods are possible.

The agent list can include rankings of the agents or weights to indicatean importance of meeting with that agent. For instance, an agent with ahigher ranking or a higher weight can indicate that the supervisor wantsto meet with that agent more than an agent with a lower ranking orweight. Along with the list of agents, the supervisor can also input hisavailability to meet with the agents. However, if availability is notincluded, a determination that the supervisor is available at the timeof the request can be made as a default.

The ACD receives the list of agents (block 51) and determines a statusof availability (block 52) for each agent on the list based on a set ofagent criteria, which are described below in further detail with respectto FIG. 4. The agent criteria can include, for example, agent skilllevel or busyness of the queue. The agent availability can be determinedat the time of the request, as well as at other times, including timesprovided by the supervisor or a default time. For instance, thesupervisor can indicate that he is available to meet with one or moreagents at the time of entering the list of agents and the agentavailability is determined at the time of the request for identifyingthe agent that is best able to leave the call queue and meet with thesupervisor. Alternatively, the supervisor may provide a list of agentsat 8 a.m. and indicate that he is not available to meet with any agentsuntil 10 a.m., at which point availability of the agents can bedetermined.

However, in a further embodiment, the agent availability at 10 a.m. canbe determined at 8 a.m. and a meeting can be scheduled, as describedbelow with reference to FIG. 6. If, the status of the scheduled agent'savailability changes by 10 a.m., the meeting can automatically berescheduled, as described further below with reference to FIG. 7.

Once availability is determined, a further determination is made (block53) as to whether the available agent is a most available agent. Themost available agent is one that can be removed from the queue with theleast disruption and can be identified based on a ranking of the agents.In one embodiment, the agents are ranked in descending order byavailability and the agent at the top of the list is identified as themost available agent. However, other order or ranking schemes and agentselection are possible, such as ascending order and alphabetically.Further, other factors can be considered when determining the mostavailable agent, such as an importance of the meeting between the agentand the supervisor, an urgency of the meeting, and a nature of themeeting. For instance, two or more agents may be equally available andthe agent with whom the supervisor is most interested in speaking withcan be selected as the most available. The ACD can remove the mostavailable agent from a call queue and connect the most available agentwith the requesting supervisor, as described below.

In one example, Supervisor Lee manages 60 agents and attempts to meetwith each agent at least twice a month to provide feedback on callhandling, resolving customer concerns, call efficiency, and callresolution. Thus, to ensure that Supervisor Lee succeeds in meeting witheach agent twice a month, he must talk to at least 6 agents per work daybased on a 20 day work month. In this example, Supervisor Lee entersdaily lists of agents with whom he wants to meet with that day.Specifically, on Monday, Supervisor Lee accesses a Web page for enteringa list of six agents and indicates that he is currently available for ameeting with one of the agents. In a further embodiment, the list ofagents can also be entered on a weekly basis and Supervisor Lee canenter the names of 30 agents, on Monday, with whom he wants to meet withduring the upcoming week. Other time periods for entry are possible,including twice a week, three times a week, every other week, and so on,as well as a combination of different time periods. However, the currentexample will follow the daily entry of agents.

Once Supervisor Lee enters the list of agents, an availability status ofeach agent is determined. The first, third, fourth, and six agents aredetermined to be unavailable, while the second and fifth agents areassigned an “available” status with an availability measure. Theavailability measure can be a quantitative value representing anavailability of an agent that is determined based on agent criteria. Inthis example, Agent #2 is a senior agent with seven years experience andhas 3 open tickets, and is assigned an availability measure of 8, whileAgent #5 is a newer agent with 1.5 years experience and has 1 openticket, and is assigned an availability measure of 5. Agent #2 receiveda higher availability measure since he is able to resolve customerconcerns quickly due to his experience and is likely to resolve the twoopen tickets faster than Agent #5 resolves the single open ticket.However, in a further embodiment, Agent #5 may receive a higheravailability measure since he only has a single open ticket and ameeting with the supervisor will greatly benefit this agent since he isnewer and still needs guidance and advice as to resolving certainissues. In this example, though, Agent #2 is determined to have a higheravailability measure than Agent #5. Based on the availability measures,Agent #2 is selected as the most available agent.

If a most available agent cannot be identified (block 54), such as whenthere are no available agents because the call center is extremely busyand all the agents are needed to resolve caller concerns and preventfurther back up, one or more of the listed agents can be optionallyscheduled (block 55) for a meeting with the supervisor at a later time.Appointments for the agents can be scheduled in the future at apredicted best time, such as when the call center is generally slower toavoid removing an agent from the queue when he is needed to answercalls. Alternatively, if not scheduled, the agents listed by thesupervisor can be tracked in real time throughout the requested meetingtime period to identify when each of the agents becomes available (block52). When no agents are available, the ACD can send a notice to thesupervisor to inform him that there are no available agents, but onewill be transferred upon becoming available.

Once the appointment is determined to occur at a specific time, anotification is sent (block 55) to the most available agent and eachscheduled agent regarding the upcoming appointment. The notification caninclude a name of the supervisor, a time of the scheduled appointment,and a subject of the appointment, as well as a link to the agent'srecords. Other information for inclusion in the agent and supervisornotifications is possible. The agent records can each include callmetrics, such as number of calls handled, percentage of calls in which aresolution was reached, and average talk time per call, as well as othertypes of call metrics.

If prior to the time of the actual meeting, the agent is no longeravailable, the meeting can optionally be rescheduled (block 57), asdescribed in detail below with reference to FIG. 7. However, if theagent is still available, the ACD automatically removes the agent fromthe call queue and connects (block 58) the agent with the supervisor toconduct the meeting. The connection can occur via telephone or Webconferencing, as well as other type of media connections. Prior toconnecting the agent and supervisor, a voice or written greeting can beprovided to that states “you are now talking to ‘Agent X’ or ‘SupervisorY.’” The ACD can also provide the supervisor with the agent's records atthe time of transferring the agent.

Upon termination of the meeting, the ACD immediately places the agentback into the call queue (block 59) to assist in answering incomingcustomer calls. The other agents that remain on the supervisor's listcan be tracked and connected to the supervisor upon a determination thateach such agent is available. To ensure the supervisor is available whenthe agents are transferred, the supervisor can provide an indication ofhis availability by, for example, logging into his telephone or a Webpage, which provides notice to the ACD that the supervisor is availableto take calls, or by entering available time periods into a Web pagewith, for example, the list of agents. Other methods for relayingsupervisor availability to the ACD are possible.

Returning to the example above, Agent #2 is identified as the mostavailable agent. A notification is sent to Agent #2 to provide noticethat the agent will be meeting with Supervisor Lee upon completion ofthe two open tickets to discuss Agent #2's call statistics for theprevious week. The same or a different notification is sent toSupervisor Lee to identify the agent with whom the meeting is scheduled,as well as a time at which the agent becomes available and the meetingwill occur. For instance, the supervisor can receive a notice that theagent will be available in a couple minutes at which time the call willbe connected. Agent #2 is able to promptly finish both open tickets andthe call center is no busier than when the agent was determined to beavailable. Accordingly, the meeting need not be rescheduled to a latertime. Agent #2 is connected to Supervisor Lee via the telephone duringwhich the meeting is conducted. After the meeting has terminated, Agent#2 is placed back into the call queue and can immediately receiveincoming customer calls. Throughout the remainder of the day, Monday,Supervisor continues to receive notifications for four other agents onthe list with whom he conducts interviews. Subsequently, on Tuesday,Supervisor Lee enters a list of eight agents with whom he would like tomeet with on this day because yesterday, he only met with five of thesix agents and wants to ensure that he conducts at least six meetings onTuesday.

Agent availability can be used to determine scheduling of the agentmeetings with a supervisor. FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing, by way ofexample, a process 60 for determining agent availability. For eachagent, a set of agent criteria is analyzed (block 61) and one or more ofthe criteria are selected for determining agent availability. FIG. 5 isa block diagram 70 showing, by way of example, agent criteria 71 fordetermining availability. The agent criteria can include skill level 72of the agent, seniority 73 of the agent, a length of the queue 74 inwhich the agent works, and a quantity of open tickets 75 assigned to theagent. The skill level 72 can be determined based on the types of callshandled by the agent, an average time per call, a success rate forresolved calls, or an average quantity of calls handled over aparticular time period. Seniority 73 can be determined based on anamount of time an agent worked at the call center or an amount of timeservicing a particular queue. Queue length 74 can be determined based onhow many callers are in the queue, in addition to the nature of thecalls and an average time to resolve calls of that nature. The quantityof open tickets 75 can be determined based on how many calls have beenassigned to a particular agent. Other metrics for determining the agentcriteria are possible. In one embodiment, the ACD can select the skill72, seniority 73, queue length 74 and number of open tickets 75 to beused in determining agent availability. Alternatively, another callcenter component or employee of the call center can determine the agentcriteria.

An availability measure is determined (block 62) for each selected agentcriteria for each agent. The availability measure can be a numericalvalue that quantifies how the agent criteria apply to the agent. Forinstance, a high availability measure for agent skill level can indicatethat an agent is highly skilled and can answer calls efficiently.Removal of that agent from the queue is more likely to effect customerwait time than a slower agent with a lower availability measure forskill and likely to render the highly skilled agent as less availablethan the lower skilled agent.

To determine the availability measure, each agent criteria can beassociated with a level of values, one of which is assigned based oncharacteristics possessed by the agent and call queue. The skillcriteria assigns values based on how high the agent's skill level is atanswering calls and addressing caller concerns, which can be determinedfrom the factors described above with reference to FIG. 5, including atype or complexity of calls handled, a number of calls handled by theagent, a rate of successfully completed calls versus unresolved calls,and an average time per call, as well as other skill factors. Theseniority criteria assigns values based on how long an agent is employedat a company associated with the call center. The call queue criteriaassigns a value based on a busyness of the queue to which the agentbelongs. The queue busyness can be determined based on a number ofcallers assigned to the queue, a number of agents assigned to the queue,a difficulty of subject matter addressed by the agents in that queue,and an average time to complete a call within that queue, which can beused singly or in combination to indicate busyness. The open ticketcriteria assigns a value based on how many calls are assigned to theagent. Once values for one or more of the criteria are assigned, thevalues for the selected agent criteria are summed to determine theavailability measure for each agent. In a further embodiment, one ormore of the criteria can be weighted to ensure that the most importantcriteria are more highly considered, rather than giving each agentcriteria equal weight.

Returning to the above example, Agent #2 and #5 are determined to beavailable. Their availability is determined based on the skill,seniority, call queue, and open ticket criteria. For skill, a value ofone can be assigned to those agents with few or low skills, a two forthose agents with medium or standard skill sets, and a three for high orabove-standard skill sets. For seniority, a value of one is assigned tothe agent for one year or less employed at the call center, a value oftwo for one to five years employed at the call center, a value of threefor six to 10 years at the call center, and a value of four for morethan 10 years at the call center. The queue length value is assignedbased on a busyness of the queue and a value of one is assigned to aslow or below standard queue, a two for a moderately busy or standardqueue, and a three for a very busy or above standard queue. The samedetermined value can be assigned to each agent in that queue. Finally,for open tickets, a value of one is assigned to agents with a minimal orbelow standard number of calls, a two is assigned to agents with anaverage or standard number of calls, and a three is assigned to agentswith a high or above standard number of calls. Other value levels arepossible for the agent criteria.

Alternatively, categories, such as below standard, standard and abovestandard, can be used to determine availability. For instance, if theskill level of an agent is standard, the seniority is below standard,the call queue is below standard, and the open tickets are belowstandard, the agent can be determined to be available since three of thefour skill levels have been assigned a category of below standard andremoval of a lesser skilled agent from a call queue that is not busy isunlikely to impact customer wait time. Other values and intervals ofvalues are possible.

Once determined, a threshold is applied (block 63) to the availabilitymeasures of each agent. If the threshold is satisfied (block 64), theagents associated with the availability measures are determined to beavailable (block 65). Otherwise, if the threshold is not satisfied(block 64), the agents associated with the availability measures aredetermined to be unavailable (block 66). As described above, a mostavailable agent can be selected from the available agents to schedule afirst appointment with the supervisor, which can occur upondetermination of the agent as a most available agent. The most availableagent is one that can best be pulled from the call queue withoutcreating a disturbance, such increased caller wait time.

The remaining agents, other than the most available agent, can then betracked in real time to monitor availability for meeting with thesupervisor, as described above with reference to FIG. 3 or can bescheduled to meet with the supervisor. If scheduled, the appointmentbetween an agent and a supervisor can be made based on predicted levelsof busyness of the call center. FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing, by wayof example, a process 80 for scheduling meetings with agents. Anavailability of the supervisor is determined (block 81). The supervisoravailability can be determined based on times provided by the supervisoror a schedule maintained by the ACD for the supervisor.

Subsequently, a busyness of the call center is predicted (block 82)during the times when the supervisor is available based on predeterminedaverages of busyness, for instance. Next, agent availability ispredicted (block 83) during the times of supervisor availability basedon the predicted busyness of the call center; however, other factors canbe considered, such as agent experience, type of calls handled by anagent, and call handling statistics for each agent. Also, an averagemeeting time for the particular supervisor is determined (block 84). Theaverage meeting time can be used to determine how close togethermeetings can be scheduled. For example, a supervisor with a one hourtime period of availability can schedule up to six agent appointments ifthe average appointment time is 10 minutes, whereas a supervisor with anaverage time period of 15 minutes can only schedule up to four agentappointments. Finally, an appointment is booked (block 85) for one ormore of the remaining agents.

As the time approaches for a scheduled appointment, the actual activitywithin the call center may differ from the predicted busyness at thetime the appointment was scheduled. The call center may be busier thanexpected, in one example, and the removal of even a single agent fromthe call queue is likely to create additional customer wait times. Toprevent an increase in wait time, the appointment can be rescheduled.FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing, by way of example, a process 90 forrescheduling agent-supervisor meetings. A flow or busyness of the callcenter is determined (block 91) at a time just prior to a scheduledappointment. The time period can be two, five, or seven minutes, as wellas other time periods and can be determined by the ACD, other callcomponent, or an individual associated with the call center, such as amanager or supervisor. A need of the agent to participate in answeringqueued calls is determined (block 92) based on the flow of the callcenter and the agent criteria. The need can be quantified by assigning avalue to each of the agent criteria considered and the busyness of thecall queue.

A threshold is applied (block 93) to the agent need measures and if thethreshold is satisfied (block 94), the agent can be removed from thequeue to attend the scheduled appointment without any adverse effects tothe call queue. However, if the agent need measures do not satisfy thethreshold (block 94), the appointment can be rescheduled (block 95), asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 6. Finally, notice of therescheduled appointment can be provided (block 96) to each of the agentand supervisor. The notice can include a new date and time of thescheduled appointment, the names and contact information of theindividuals participating in the appointment, and a subject fordiscussion during the appointment, as well as other information.

In a further embodiment, the call center can become busy while the agentand supervisor are participating in a meeting. The ACD continuouslymonitors the call queues within the call center to determine a flow ofthe queues. If the ACD determines that one or more of the queues is toobusy and further agents are needed, any meetings being conducted, thatwere facilitated by the system, can be terminated and the agentsreturned to the appropriate queue for answering the backlog of calls.Once the backlog is reduced, the agent can then be automaticallyreturned to the meeting or the meeting can be scheduled for a latertime.

Further, a supervisor may be needed to assist on a call during a meetingbeing conducted with an agent. In such case, as well as in otherscenarios, the ACD can send the supervisor a notice to terminate themeeting. Once terminated, the supervisor is transferred to the callneeding assistance and once the assistance has been provided, a meetingwith the agent can again be initiated by the ACD. The ACD can initiatethe meeting by determining an availability of the agent, sending anotification to the agent and the supervisor when the agent isdetermined to be available, connecting the supervisor with the agent,and providing agent records or notes regarding the unfinished meeting tothe supervisor.

Although the above description focuses on agent-supervisor meetings,other meetings are possible within and outside of a call center and thedescribed processes can be applied to the other types of meetings. Forexample, in one embodiment, the meeting can be a training session. Alist of all agents that should attend a particular training session canbe provided to the ACD via a Web page. A supervisor or other employee ofthe call center can enter the agent list. An availability of each agentis determined. The available agents receive a notice from the ACD thatthey will be attending a training session and a time of the trainingsession. Subsequently, the available agents are then connected via aconferencing system for the training session.

In a further embodiment, the ACD meeting facilitation system can be usedto identify how many supervisors are needed in a call center. Forinstance, if a supervisor is not busy enough, he may be able to scheduleall agent meetings within a few days, leaving him without work theremaining days. Also, the system can be used to track the busyness of anagent. If an agent is consistently busy and unavailable to meet with asupervisor, the meeting may become high priority and eventually, theagent may have to be removed from the queue regardless of whetherremoval may increase hold time. However, the agent can be removed at atime when he is least needed.

In yet a further embodiment, each supervisor can visually track theagents he manages, including those agents with whom he has spoken andthose agents with whom he still needs to conduct a meeting. In oneexample, each agent management by a supervisor can be represented as atile. The tile can have a shape of a square, rectangle, circle, ortriangle, and the tiles can be the same or different. The tiles for allthe agents can be combined to form a shape, such as a square orrectangle, which is presented to the supervisor. One or more of thetiles can be selected by the agent for scheduling a meeting and theselected tiles can be color coded, highlighted, removed from thecombined shape of tiles and moved to a different part of thesupervisor's display, or assigned a different shape tile. Further, oncethe supervisor speaks with one of the agents of the selected tiles, thattile can also be color coded, highlighted, removed from the combinedshape of tiles and moved to a different part of the supervisor'sdisplay, or assigned a different shape tile to distinguish the agentswith whom the supervisor has spoken from those agents with whom thesupervisor has not spoken.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described asreferenced to the embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art willunderstand that the foregoing and other changes in form and detail maybe made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented system for facilitatingappointments within a call center, comprising: an automatic calldistributor (ACD) to receive incoming customer calls to a call centerand to transfer each incoming customer call to an agent in to a callqueue within the call center; a list of a portion of agents forscheduling meetings within a call center and received from a user; aserver comprising a central processing unit, memory, an input port toreceive the list of agents, and an output port, wherein the centralprocessing unit is configured to: receive one or more of rankings orweights for each of the agents on the list; at an initial time,determine that all the agents on the list are unavailable for a meetingwith the user; provide a notice to the user that all the agents on thelist are unavailable; track the agents on the list for availability;identify at a later time, after the initial time, two or more of theagents on the list as available agents that are available for meetingwith the user based on the tracked availability for the agents on thelist; determine that the user is available at the later time when theavailable agents are determined to be available; and automaticallyconnect one of the available agents with the user at the later time,based at least in part on the rankings or weights.
 2. Acomputer-implemented system according to claim 1, wherein the centralprocessing unit schedules an appointment with a particular one of theagents on the list at a time later than the initial time.
 3. Acomputer-implemented system according to claim 2, wherein the centralprocessing unit estimates a busyness of the call center at differenttimes and determines that the estimated busyness of the call center islowest at the time of the scheduled appointment.
 4. Acomputer-implemented system according to claim 2, wherein the centralprocessing unit estimates a busyness of the particular one agent atdifferent times and determines that the estimated busyness of theparticular one agent is lowest at the time of the scheduled appointment.5. A computer-implemented system according to claim 2, wherein thecentral processing unit identifies that the particular one agent isunavailable at the time of the scheduled appointment and performs atleast one of rescheduling the appointment and automatically connectingthe particular one agent with the user when the particular one agentbecomes available.
 6. A computer-implemented system according to claim1, wherein the central processing unit provides notice to the user thatthe one of available agent will be automatically connected.
 7. Acomputer-implemented system according to claim 1, wherein the centralprocessing unit provides to the user a visual display for theavailability of the agents on the list.
 8. A computer-implemented systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the central processing unit identifies atime frame within which appointments with all the agents on the list areto be scheduled and automatically connects each agent with the userwithin the identified time frame.
 9. A computer-implemented systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the central processing unit determines theavailability of the user based on one of times provided by the user anda schedule of the user.
 10. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating appointments within a call center, comprising: receivingincoming customer calls in a call center; transferring each incomingcustomer call to an agent signed into a call queue within the callcenter; receiving from a user a list of at least a portion of the agentsfor scheduling meetings; receiving one or more of rankings or weightsfor each of the agents on the list; at an initial time, determining thatall the agents on the list are unavailable for a meeting with the user;providing a notice to the user that all the agents on the list areunavailable; tracking the agents on the list for availability;identifying at a later time, after the initial time, two or more of theagents on the list as available agents that are available for meetingwith the user based on the tracked availability for the agents on thelist; determining that the user is available at the later time when theavailable agents are determined to be available; and automaticallyconnecting one of the available agents with the user at the later time,based on the received rankings or weights.
 11. A computer-implementedmethod according to claim 10, further comprising: scheduling anappointment with a particular one of the agents on the list at a timeafter the initial time.
 12. A computer-implemented method according toclaim 11, further comprising: estimating a busyness of the call centerat different times; and determining that the estimated busyness of thecall center is lowest at the time of the scheduled appointment.
 13. Acomputer-implemented method according to claim 11, further comprising:estimating a busyness of the particular one agent at different times;and determining that the estimated busyness of the particular one agentis lowest at the time of the scheduled appointment.
 14. Acomputer-implemented method according to claim 11, further comprising:identifying that the particular one agent is unavailable at the time ofthe scheduled appointment; and performing at least one of reschedulingthe appointment and automatically connecting the particular one agentwith the user when the particular one agent becomes available.
 15. Acomputer-implemented method according to claim 10, further comprising:providing notice to the user that the one of the available agents willbe automatically connected.
 16. A computer-implemented method accordingto claim 10, further comprising at least one of: providing to the user avisual display for the availability of the agents on the list.
 17. Acomputer-implemented method according to claim 10, further comprising:identifying a time frame within which appointments with all the agentson the list are to be scheduled; and automatically connecting each agentwith the user within the identified time frame.
 18. Acomputer-implemented method according to claim 10, further comprising:determining the availability of the user based on one of times providedby the user and a schedule of the user.